The 1550's: Stingy warscore
The last chapter saw annexation of many English provinces, leaving them as a rump state. A coalition war resulted, and my ally France had just signed a separate peace, leaving Atlantis on its own versus the coalition. My aim in that war was to take Crete from Venice. FOr that I needed warscore to overcome the -30 "coalition war " malus when negotiating. So first I needed some battles to get to +10 WS and get the ticking wargoal bonus started. I manage to get a little bit from naval battles, as my privateering fleets bump into enemy squadrons, but the big break comes when East Frisia lands a stack in Bermuda and I manage to stackwipe it:
(screenshot of WS accumulation that eventually triggers the ticking wargoal for "show superiority". Insets show naval battles using privateers)
By the time Crete falls in 1552, we have 27% WS:
(screenshot of fall of Crete , with inset showing we have ticking warscore in addition to some battle warscore).
But even with that, it was not enough. And even after I recover Bermuda island from a Savoyard expedition, and destroy them in the process , and get WS to +39%, the Pope remains obstinate:
(screenshot showing difficulty in getting Crete ceded despite WS. But we are getting close)
ANd so I persist, and follow atwix's advice to blockade the Pope's ports. And finally, a year later, he agrees to let Venice give up Crete:
(screenshot of peace with coalition - we finally get Crete!. Note my spy network at 19 in Knights . )
Was the 4 year wait worth it for Crete? I think so. Because otherwise , I would need a no CB war or Imperialism to get to the Eastern Mediterrnean. And I don't waste any time in exploiting my new province, having a spy network already built in Rhodes . I fabricate on the Knights immediately, and after a brief delay putting down rebels in Scotland, it is DOW time :
(DOW on the Knights, allied to Venice and their league. Inset shows Aragon rebelling against Castile [Aragon is supported by France]. Second inset shows my choices for Rivals. I am insulted by this. Bohemia? I was expecting Ottomans or France as candidates. Austria? Ok it is the emperor. But Bohemia? come on!)
The war with the Knights is another case of an easy war on the military front, but difficult peace on the warscore front. It is very simple to siege and capture the city of Rhodes itself. But knocking out their allies to isolate them was not so simple. At first I try blockading Venice to white peace them, but it is still too early. Then the Pope decides to dogpile the Venetians and I take advantage by capturing Venice first:
(situation after 3 years of war. I occupy two islands, but cannot get either one in the peace- yet)
As I settle down for a long war waiting for peace modifiers to tick down, the Pope gives me a very nice assist. He makes peace with Venice taking away a good chunk of their land. After that , the percent of their land that I occupy becomes so high that I can peace them out separately:
(screenshot of separate peace giving us the island of Venice )
And with Venice out of the war, the Knights now surrender:
(screenshot of peace with the Knights . We get Rhodes and lots of money. Inset shows we took immediate advantage of Venice's annexation to raid the Adriatic for slaves and money . Second inset shows Aragon gaining its freedom)
The annexation of Rhodes removes a key raiding competitor. Now I am the only one able to raid Constantinople and Egypt. I still need to figure out how to knock out the Tunisians and Moroccans so I have exclusive raiding rights in the western mediterranean.
And this brings us to 1560. I had spent the decade in continuous war in the mediterranean. ANd I only annexed 3 small islands. But their strategic locations more than make up for their tiny size. I had saved myself a no-CB war ( come to think of it, I have only used this once, on Ireland in the 1450's). And I can raid Constantinople , Egypt and the entire Italian coast .
It is time to take stock of the situation. On the money front, monthly income is OK. Sometimes I ran a surplus ( if all fleets are privateering), other times deficists. But we have huge treasury thanks to raiding:
As for tech, we have fallen behind on ADM and DIP due to poor king stats on the former, and finishing the Maritime group on the latter:
As I post this, I realize I should have abdicated my King 7 years ago. Is it still worth doing?
Here is a view of military and world power rankings:
Atlantis is now #3 GP. We are first in navy. But lag in army:
Finally, we are already at 80 provinces. Thanks to @Tom D. nice map, we can see our progress :
Plenty left to colonize and conquer.
As for strategy, I am now starting to bump into Ottomans. They hold several islands in Greece, as well as Hormuz:
I can chose to attack them soon, or wait till later. I have an easy war coming up against an isolated England . There is also Denmark on whom I have a CB. I can attack Ottos after dealing with those. Or I can even secure all of Indonesia and/or Japan first, then deal with the green blob.
The last chapter saw annexation of many English provinces, leaving them as a rump state. A coalition war resulted, and my ally France had just signed a separate peace, leaving Atlantis on its own versus the coalition. My aim in that war was to take Crete from Venice. FOr that I needed warscore to overcome the -30 "coalition war " malus when negotiating. So first I needed some battles to get to +10 WS and get the ticking wargoal bonus started. I manage to get a little bit from naval battles, as my privateering fleets bump into enemy squadrons, but the big break comes when East Frisia lands a stack in Bermuda and I manage to stackwipe it:
(screenshot of WS accumulation that eventually triggers the ticking wargoal for "show superiority". Insets show naval battles using privateers)
By the time Crete falls in 1552, we have 27% WS:
(screenshot of fall of Crete , with inset showing we have ticking warscore in addition to some battle warscore).
But even with that, it was not enough. And even after I recover Bermuda island from a Savoyard expedition, and destroy them in the process , and get WS to +39%, the Pope remains obstinate:
(screenshot showing difficulty in getting Crete ceded despite WS. But we are getting close)
ANd so I persist, and follow atwix's advice to blockade the Pope's ports. And finally, a year later, he agrees to let Venice give up Crete:
(screenshot of peace with coalition - we finally get Crete!. Note my spy network at 19 in Knights . )
Was the 4 year wait worth it for Crete? I think so. Because otherwise , I would need a no CB war or Imperialism to get to the Eastern Mediterrnean. And I don't waste any time in exploiting my new province, having a spy network already built in Rhodes . I fabricate on the Knights immediately, and after a brief delay putting down rebels in Scotland, it is DOW time :
(DOW on the Knights, allied to Venice and their league. Inset shows Aragon rebelling against Castile [Aragon is supported by France]. Second inset shows my choices for Rivals. I am insulted by this. Bohemia? I was expecting Ottomans or France as candidates. Austria? Ok it is the emperor. But Bohemia? come on!)
The war with the Knights is another case of an easy war on the military front, but difficult peace on the warscore front. It is very simple to siege and capture the city of Rhodes itself. But knocking out their allies to isolate them was not so simple. At first I try blockading Venice to white peace them, but it is still too early. Then the Pope decides to dogpile the Venetians and I take advantage by capturing Venice first:
(situation after 3 years of war. I occupy two islands, but cannot get either one in the peace- yet)
As I settle down for a long war waiting for peace modifiers to tick down, the Pope gives me a very nice assist. He makes peace with Venice taking away a good chunk of their land. After that , the percent of their land that I occupy becomes so high that I can peace them out separately:
(screenshot of separate peace giving us the island of Venice )
And with Venice out of the war, the Knights now surrender:
(screenshot of peace with the Knights . We get Rhodes and lots of money. Inset shows we took immediate advantage of Venice's annexation to raid the Adriatic for slaves and money . Second inset shows Aragon gaining its freedom)
The annexation of Rhodes removes a key raiding competitor. Now I am the only one able to raid Constantinople and Egypt. I still need to figure out how to knock out the Tunisians and Moroccans so I have exclusive raiding rights in the western mediterranean.
And this brings us to 1560. I had spent the decade in continuous war in the mediterranean. ANd I only annexed 3 small islands. But their strategic locations more than make up for their tiny size. I had saved myself a no-CB war ( come to think of it, I have only used this once, on Ireland in the 1450's). And I can raid Constantinople , Egypt and the entire Italian coast .
It is time to take stock of the situation. On the money front, monthly income is OK. Sometimes I ran a surplus ( if all fleets are privateering), other times deficists. But we have huge treasury thanks to raiding:
As for tech, we have fallen behind on ADM and DIP due to poor king stats on the former, and finishing the Maritime group on the latter:
As I post this, I realize I should have abdicated my King 7 years ago. Is it still worth doing?
Here is a view of military and world power rankings:
Atlantis is now #3 GP. We are first in navy. But lag in army:
Finally, we are already at 80 provinces. Thanks to @Tom D. nice map, we can see our progress :
Plenty left to colonize and conquer.
As for strategy, I am now starting to bump into Ottomans. They hold several islands in Greece, as well as Hormuz:
I can chose to attack them soon, or wait till later. I have an easy war coming up against an isolated England . There is also Denmark on whom I have a CB. I can attack Ottos after dealing with those. Or I can even secure all of Indonesia and/or Japan first, then deal with the green blob.
